Flood Insurance Rate Hikes Delayed On March 21, 2014, President Obama signed the “Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act” into law. This law repeals FEMA’s authority to increase premium rates at time of sale or new flood map, and refunds the excessive premium to those who bought a property before FEMA warned them of the rate increase. The bill limits premium increases to 18 percent annually on newer properties and 25 percent for some older ones. Additionally, the bill adds a small assessment on policies until everyone is paying full cost for flood insurance.

As has been previously reported in Fast Track and Broker Blast, the original rate hikes were part of the 2012 Biggert-Waters law. Designed to gradually phase out flood insurance subsidies, the increases were an attempt to shore up finances for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is roughly $24 billion in debt. Debt caused mainly by relief efforts of catastrophic events over the last decade. As a result of the phase-out, some home owners who were not required to pay the full actuarial cost of their insurance were being faced with tens of thousands of dollars a year in flood insurance hikes.

In February, the BLC® Technology and Operations Committee evaluated three of our industries’ leading listing service systems. The Committee dedicated three full days to thoroughly review each system, rating them in all areas of functionality and performance. Their conclusion was that the Corelogic Matrix system would be the best system to support the MIBOR Broker Listing Cooperative® listing service’s users. More

April Training Schedule Published

The latest schedule of complimentary Fusion™ training has been posted. Please note that some classes require Basic as a pre-requisite. As a convenience, there are a few instances of Basic being offered in the morning and CMA or Prospecting class offered in the afternoon of the same day. For a description of training classes, click here . For online registration, click here and select “Register for Classes” or call Tech Support (317) 956-5000 x1.

Day

Date

Time

Class

Comment

Wed

Apr 2

9:30 - 11:30

Realist

Thr

Apr 3

1:30 - 3:30

Basic

Tue

Apr 8

9:30 - 11:30

Basic

Tue

Apr 8

1:30 - 3:30

Prospecting

Must have taken Basic

Wed

Apr 16

9:30 - 11:30

Basic

Wed

Apr 16

1:30 - 3:30

Advanced

Must have taken Basic

Thu

Apr 17

1:30 - 3:30

CMA

Must have taken Basic

Tue

Apr 22

1:30 - 4:00

Admin

Must have add/edit access

Wed

Apr 23

1:30 - 3:30

Basic

Thr

Apr 24

9:30 - 11:30

Realist

Broker/Owner Meeting Set for April 25th Mark your calendar for the next Broker/Owner meeting. The meeting will be held on Friday, April 25th beginning at 9 a.m. at MIBOR, 1912 N. Meridian St. This meeting will focus on:

Connecting Homeownership and Indy’s Immigrant Communities. Researcher Todd Sears will review locally-relevant data about the diversity of homeowners and what it means to your business.

Near Eastside Economic Impact. Two years post Super Bowl and in the eve of a new bid, MIBOR will reveal the economic impact and housing market changes created through theBuilding a Living Legacy project.

The Latest on Matrix. The BLC® listing will undergo a system enhancement to Matrix later this year. Hear about the selection process, new system features and timing of the change.

Broker/Owner meetings are an opportunity to bring the most relevant topics to you while providing a forum for questions and discussion that affect the membership. As always, there is no charge to attend, but reservations are required as seating is limited. To register, click here or e-mail Kari Smith.

The Next Step in Broker Transition…Notification If your agents have completed the transition from salesperson to broker license, please remind them to send their new license number to MIBOR membership so that we may verify with IPLA. Email name and new number to membership@mibor.com.

REAL Trends Seeking Most Productive Agents and Teams REAL Trends issued a survey to find the most productive agents and teams across America. The minimum required for inclusion is 50 closed residential transaction sides or $20 million in closed sales volume for individual sales agents and 75 closed transaction sides or $30 million in closed sales volume for teams. This is based on calendar year 2013 results. Leases and rentals are not included in this report. Please be aware there is a $40 application fee. The deadline to apply is Monday, March 31, 2014. To apply, click here. For more information contact Jaime O’Connell at joconnell@realtrends.com or (303) 741-1000.

New Membership Applications Online Several changes have been made to the membership application available at MIBOR.com. Please encourage your office managers and your new agents to rely on the new forms, not older archived versions. Click here to access the form.